ELDERLY BEATING VICTIM IN CRITICAL CONDITION

Last Friday, Mildred Metheny talked of going home to Arkansas, to the small farm where she was born 78 years ago.

On Saturday afternoon, clad in pink pajamas and an orange blouse, she walked away from her sister's home in Lake Worth. That night a passer-by found her, unconscious and battered, on a rural dirt road west of Jupiter, almost 30 miles away. She remained in critical condition Monday at Martin Memorial Hospital in Stuart.

Lake Worth police think she was abducted near her sister's home on Crestwood Boulevard, driven to the remote area off Indiantown Road, severely beaten with a blunt object, and left for dead.

Nowlen said her sister has suffered from Alzheimer's disease for many years and, unable to take care of herself, left her son in Arkansas and moved in with her about two years ago. She said she tried never to leave her sister alone.

"She was really restless the last few days," Nowlen said. "She wanted to work, and it hurt her feelings when I said she couldn't. The day before she disappeared she was prowling around the house. She said, 'I want to go down to the old place. Down where Momma lives.' I told her we were in Florida, that the old place was sold, and Momma was gone."

Metheny's son, Gary, flew in from Monticello, Ark., when he heard what had happened. He said his mother is prone to memory lapses, and was never allowed out alone.

"If you took her around the block, she wouldn't know how to get back," he said. "I think she just got it in her mind that she was going to the old place."

Gary Metheny said it would have been easy for someone to pick up his mother once she was lost.

"She'll talk to anybody," he said. "We'd go to the grocery store, and she'd be telling someone she's from Monticello. She was always attracted to children and babies."

Nowlen's daughter, Fran Eberhart, lives around the corner from her mother, and was visiting shortly before Metheny disappeared.

"My daughter and I left about 3:30 p.m., and she was sitting in that chair," Eberhart said Monday from her mother's living room. "We were going on an outing. Mother was in the yard thinning the hedge, and Aunt Mildred asked if she could help out. Mother said no, and told her to go inside and read the paper."

Eberhart said she left her house about an hour later and waved to her mother, who was in the back yard, as she drove by. By that time, her aunt had already wandered away, but Eberhart said she saw no sign of her.

Gary Metheny said he cannot understand why anyone would harm his mother.

"It wasn't robbery," he said. "My mother didn't have her purse. It had to be a sick person, the kind that preys on old women and children."

Metheny said he is angry about what happened to his mother, and frustrated by the prospect of her attacker never being punished.

"Even if they catch someone, she'll never be able to identify him," he said.

Nowlen, who has lived in Lake Worth for 25 years, said she feels sorry for the person who assaulted her sister, and just hopes she will completely recover from her injuries.

"I hope she can be like she was," Nowlen said. "I'd rather see her in a casket than not be able to walk or get around."

Lake Worth police Detective Tom Brown said there are no suspects in the case, and is asking that anyone who may have witnessed the abduction contact the police department.

"There's some guy out there who's picking up old women and leaving them to die," Brown said. "I can't understand why. But this is something we want to stop before it happens again."